This is all preposterous nonsense. Unlike the second world war, the bloodbath of 1914-18 was not a just war. It was a savage industrial slaughter perpetrated by a gang of predatory imperial powers, locked in a deadly struggle to capture and carve up territories, markets and resources.Read the full article HERE:
Germany was the rising industrial power and colonial Johnny-come-lately of the time, seeking its place in the sun from the British and French empires. The war erupted directly from the fight for imperial dominance in the Balkans, as Austria-Hungary and Russia scrapped for the pickings from the crumbling Ottoman empire. All the ruling elites of Europe, tied together in a deathly quadrille of unstable alliances, shared the blame for the murderous barbarism they oversaw. The idea that Britain and its allies were defending liberal democracy, let alone international law or the rights of small nations, is simply absurd.
It’s been eight months since the worst factory collapse in world’s history killed more than 1,100 workers. More than 125 global apparel brands have taken responsibility for the safety of the workers who make their clothes. But a few key corporations led by Gap are still standing in the way of real reform.Gap, one of the top purchasers of Bangladeshi-made clothes, refused to sign a binding agreement to ensure that its factories are safe. Instead, it is actively undermining serious reform by promoting a non-binding corporate-controlled program that’s completely unaccountable to workers, and helping to convince other companies to do the same.Gap has put publicity and profits ahead of workers’ lives -- and now we have an opportunity to hold it accountable.We’ve successfully nominated Gap for the Public Eye Awards, which Greenpeace and the Berne Declaration bestow on the world’s least ethical corporation each year. If Gap “wins” it’ll be a huge blow to its PR campaign and a reminder that the sham isn’t fooling anyone. But to make it happen, we need your vote. To vote, just click the link, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click the "vote for this case" button.When Gap, Walmart, and their allies walked away from the Accord, we knew more workers would die as a consequence. And like clockwork, another deadly fire ripped through a factory that supplied Gap in October. It was the latest reminder that we can't trust corporations with people's safety, which is why the independent inspections and legally-binding commitments to safety improvements that the Accord creates are so important.The inspections mandated by the Accord are underway, overseen by globally-recognized fire safety experts. The garment industry isn’t going to be changed overnight, but real reform is happening. Meanwhile, our allies on the ground in Bangladesh have told us that the Gap-led Alliance is as bad as we predicted. It hasn’t hired any independent building inspectors and it isn't listening to workers -- it’s just using the same old company-controlled auditing systems that have been failing to enforce basic safety standards for years.We can’t let this stand. If we enough of us vote, the Public Eye Awards will shame Gap in the middle of the the World Economic Forum in front of the world’s business press. This is our best chance in months to hold Gap accountable for its betrayal of Bangladeshi workers, and all it takes is a click.Thanks for all you do,
Rob and the team at SumOfUs
Read the full article HERE:Forestry Companies: The Ugliest Face of Capitalism in WallmapuThe forestry companies represent the worst aspect that Capitalism has shown to Mapuche community members in Wallmapu. Their extreme extractive activities have only generated disaster for communities, including toxic fumes, the dissapearance of rivers, brooks and streams, as well as the extinction of the natural flora and fauna of the area which serve as food and medicine for the Mapuche People. These are the main effects, among others, of the industry financed by the Chilean State through Law 701.Moreover, the enormous extensions of land currently held by the Forestry companies lie on stolen land from Mapuche communities. These corporate properties are directly related to the territorial plunder of the Mapuche People.
Giant clothing brand Hanes has been caught stealing from some of the poorest workers in the world, and we've got less than a week to stop it.Haiti has become an apparel-producing powerhouse as global clothing brands like Hanes move factories there to take advantage of some of the lowest wages in the Western Hemisphere. But workers aren't benefiting from the boom -- a new report from our friends at the Worker Rights Consortium has revealed that every single export garment factory in Haiti has been paying workers less than the minimum wage. And as a result, three quarters of Haitian garment workers don’t make enough to afford three full meals a day.At the end of this week, Russell and Gildan, two of Hanes’s top competitors, are meeting with labor rights advocates and representatives from Haitian unions to make plans to pay workers what they're owed. But Hanes has refused to join them. That means we need to speak out now and let Hanes know that consumers will hold it accountable if it tries to ignore the workers making its clothes.This isn't the first time Hanes has been in the public eye for trying to keep Haitian workers in poverty. Two years ago, WikiLeaks revealed that the company furiously lobbied the U.S. State Department to stop the Caribbean nation from raising its minimum wage to just $5 a day. Even after the garment industry got special carve-outs from the minimum wage, Hanes and its suppliers continued to mercilessly exploit its Haitian workforce.Factories use all sort of dirty tricks to swindle workers out of their wages: forcing workers to work off the clock, refusing to pay overtime, and requiring workers to reach totally unrealistic production quotas to get their full wages. On average, Haitian garment workers make more than 30% less than what they’re legally owed. Apparel companies are flagrantly breaking the law, but the combination of the garment industry's political clout and its importance to the country's economy means that the Haitian government doesn’t have the appetite to hold them accountable.Hanes could help more than 3,000 workers get millions of dollars in money that its suppliers stole from them -- it's the top buyer at several factories, and has huge influence in the industry. But instead, the company is claiming it didn't technically break the law as its workers struggle to survive. We need to let Hanes know that consumers won't tolerate any more excuses.Tell Hanes to stop wage theft and make sure Haitian workers get back the money that was stolen from them.Thank you,
Rob, Kaytee, and the team at SumOfUs.org
Translated by act for freedom now/B.pdOn December 21 2013 comrade Monica Caballero was once again transferred to another prison, this time from the prison of Estremera to that of Brieva (Ávila). Anarchist comrades Monica Caballero and Francisco Solar were arrested on November 13 2013 and accused of being part of the Comando Insurrecional Mateo Morral and of placing a home-made explosive device in the Cathedral of Zaragoza. Both comrades had been acquitted in the ‘Bombas’ case. Monica and Francisco are being held in the FIES regime.Always in revolt, solidarity and love to Monica and Francisco!
Spain – A letter from comrades Monica and FranciscoOnce again we are here between walls of concrete and bars, surveillance cameras and jailers. Once again we are here with our heads held high and proud to be what we are. Proud to be part of the hurricane that is trying to erase all forms of power, which has once again taken off its mask and is showing its real face in all its brutality and weakness as well. In this case, the collaboration between the Chilean state and the Spanish one which led to our arrest shows how the states can organize themselves in order to face what they perceive as a threat; but the attention the men of power give to us also reflects their fragility. Their incoherent speeches on security are a mantle that conceals their fear that any fortuity can unleash widespread chaos. Their blows and gags just strengthen and sharpen our ideas and lives dedicated to continuous conflict. Our stand: not a minute of silence but a life in the struggle.We send a hug to all expressions of solidarity, drives that weaken the prison bars. We intend solidarity as the constant realization of our anarchist ideas in all their forms so as the enemy understands that nothing is over and everything continues in prison and in the streets. Above all, the huge solidarity expressed by the comrades who have used their bodies as weapons and carried out a hunger strike.We salute those who continue to weave complicities, those who venture into the unknown, those who are motivated by incertitude, those who are obstinate for anarchy. All our respect and love go to them. We sadly learned of Sebastien’s death, but at the same time his life consistent with his ideals fills us with joy: a real warrior. We are on the side of the comrades who mourn our fallen comrades, bur from here we send them a lot of strength and a ‘see you soon’.
“People here are already carrying a lot more debt than they used to,” said a senior manager at one European investment bank in London – again speaking off the record. “A member of my team has a £750k mortgage on his house, which is a huge burden for him. A lot of other mid-ranking people here can’t afford to live in Zone 1 and are having to move out to Zones 3 or 4 – which is difficult when you’re a VP-level banker working very long hours.”
Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and Reaper program – aka drones – I wish I could ask them some questions. I'd start with: "How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile?" And: "How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?" Or even more pointedly: "How many soldiers have you seen die on the side of a road in Afghanistan because our ever-so-accurate UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicle] were unable to detect an IED [improvised explosive device] that awaited their convoy?"Read the full article HERE:
Few of these politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue of what actually goes on. I, on the other hand, have seen these awful sights first hand.
Read the full article HERE:
More than 30 men were crammed into the cell, locked up night and day for weeks or months. Without enough bunks, many slept on the floor. The windows were painted over, blocking out the sun, and the air was thick with cigarette smoke and the reek of the one toilet everyone shared.But what might come as the biggest surprise about this prison was its location: In Greece, squarely in Europe. That’s where former prisoner Giorgos Aslanis spent about three months a roughly 40 sq. meter (400 square feet) police holding cell in the northern town of Serres. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in October that conditions in the cell broke European laws against inhuman or degrading punishment and awarded him 8,000 euros ($11,000) in damages.
